Following the resignation of now-former Harvard President Claudine Gay over concerns about her inaction to denounce campus antisemitism along with allegations that the ex-Harvard official committed plagiarism, leftists are spreading the false narrative that Gay’s departure from the university was race-based.
Given the false talking point surfacing across social media concerning Gay’s resignation, Community Notes on X, formerly known as Twitter, is working overtime to ensure that the facts regarding the situation are provided and noted that the former Harvard president’s departure was not done based on race.
The Associated Press (AP) claimed that Gay’s resignation resembled a new “conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism.” Yet, the AP, like Harvard, has rules when it comes to committing plagiarism.
The outlet was fact-checked by X’s Community Notes, which pointed out that “Plagiarism is a breach of rules for Harvard University” and that “Claudine Gay was ultimately forced to resign for a series of breaches of this policy.”
“Plagiarism — or application of the rules around plagiarism — therefore cannot be considered a weapon,” the Community Notes continued.
X Owner Elon Musk praised the Community Notes, writing, “And, once again, @CommunityNotes for the win. Gay repeatedly violated Harvard’s rules against plagiarism. Source: Harvard.”
And, once again, @CommunityNotes for the win.
Gay repeatedly violated Harvard’s rules against plagiarism. Source: Harvard.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2024
The AP was not alone in politically spinning Gay’s resignation. The BBC, too, decided to politicize the ex-Harvard official’s departure, claiming it came from a “casualty of the campus culture wars.” After being fact-checked by X’s Community Notes, the BBC deleted its post and changed its article headline to “plays into campus culture wars.”
BBC has now deleted this post after it was community noted. Embarrassing stuff from a public broadcaster. Showing their true colours, yet again. pic.twitter.com/kmCKaKlmo7
— Bella Wallersteiner 🇺🇦 (@BellaWallerstei) January 3, 2024
One of the prominent race-baiters on the left, author Ibram X. Kendi, suggested that the “attack” on Gay was race-based.
Community Notes responded to Kendi’s post, pointing out that other non-Black university presidents forcibly resigned from their positions because of similar accusations, including former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who is White. Magill left her post because she failed to denounce calls for the genocide of Jews on campus.
Racist mobs won’t stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism. What these racist mobs are doing should be obvious to any reporter who cares about truth or justice as opposed to conflicts and clicks. https://t.co/HrRKzprnnv
— Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) January 2, 2024
Kendi claimed that Gay’s departure from Harvard demonstrated an attempt to topple Black Americans from positions of authority. Once again, Community Notes outlined that Gay resigned because evidence showed she plagiarized about half a page of material from someone else.
